The Unintentional Destruction of Intentional Communities

To destroy is to spoil so that restoration is impossible, to break down or break up. How many communities have broken down or broken up due to the impossibility of perfecting the human nature? How often has man destroyed man by trying to improve man by man’s own strength or will?

Just as Soviet Communism failed to enoble the human nature and solve problems without God, so all are doomed to failure by thinking that living in community makes “perfectability” possible. It is a fantasy to think that merely living together can empower people to overcome their “imperfectability” and somehow arrive at peace and harmony with their fellow man. This is an erroneous concept, a mere delusion. Individuals who believe such claims are in the state of being deceived.

Regardless of how creative one’s imagination (or how deeply one plunges into one’s make-believe world), attaining to “utopia” is an absolute impossiblity without the very Spirit of the true God, the Creator of all. If you took all the human attempts at community, as well as all fanciful communities in human literature, and compared them to the historical account of Acts 4:32-35, you would find the solution to why community always fails. Here in verse 33 lies, without question, the answer to what destroys community life — the absence of the “abundant grace upon them all.” If, in community, the lovingkindness, favor and good will of our Master Yahshua is not upon them ALL, then destruction is at hand. This is, of course, why even the community in the book of Acts eventually degenerated into the dull and oppressive system of Popes and bishops and priests and laymen.

Living in “community” without Him means putting your faith in the perfectability of human nature by human means. This way of life has utterly failed countless times, even resulting in cruel masters being put in positions of unlimited power and authority over others, whether popes, cult leaders, or communist dictators. This has caused immense human suffering and disappointment. But the same is true when community is set up without authority and everyone does what is right in his own eyes — lives are ruined and wasted. Without individual members in community experiencing daily “abundant grace” upon them, “community” will continue on its deluded pathway and will remain a threat to the life and happiness of those who indulge in it.

Living in the “commonwealth of Israel” as described in the New Covenant Scriptures1 is the only way God’s people can or will live on earth in this age (or even the next age, when the whole world will belong to our Master Yahshua).2 Then, at last, world peace will be achieved by those who did live communally, but by the grace and strength that God supplied for their every human need and every human deed.3 Community cannot exist any other way than the way that gives God the glory and not men. Perfectionism is an illusion.4 Without Him, the motive cannot be pure.5

The Twelve Tribes is a confederation of twelve self-governing tribes, composed of self-governing communities. We are disciples of the Son of God whose name in Hebrew is Yahshua. We follow the pattern of the early church in Acts 2:44 and 4:32, truly believing everything that is written in the Old and New Covenants of the Bible, and sharing all things in common.